Wednesday’s Top Stories: Israel ‘blinded by rage’, Varadkar says; Woman loses €450,000 in romance scam, Garda warns

Israel blinded by rage says Varadkar, as Government hardens stance on Gaza

There has been a hardening of the Irish Government’s criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying it has become “blinded by rage” and Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney suggesting it is “behaving like a rogue state”.

The rhetoric from Dublin comes amid fears that Israel will invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million war refugees are holed up in temporary shelters.

Egyptian officials reported some progress in talks held in Cairo on Tuesday in an effort to reach a ceasefire and a release of some of the 134 hostages captured during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, but a breakthrough is still not imminent.

Top News Stories

• Woman charged with murder of her son Matthew Healy (6) in Co Waterford: Ruth Purcell Healy, of Bishopsfield, Williamstown, Waterford, appeared before a special sitting of Waterford District Court on Tuesday evening, February 13th, in connection with the death of six-year-old Matthew Healy.
• Garda issues Valentine’s Day warning as woman loses €450,000 in romance scam: Gardaí have issued a Valentine’s Day warning about online romance scams after one woman lost €450,000 to a person she met online and believed was a new romantic partner. With the growing popularity of dating apps, gardaí have said 245 romance fraud victims, mostly women, had come forward to report the scams, each losing an average of €28,500, totaling €7 million, since 2019.
• RTÉ board ‘should have asked more questions’ on Toy Show the Musical, chairwoman to tell Oireachtas: Kevin Bakhurst will pledge that “RTÉ will once again become an organisation the country can be proud of” when he appears before the Oireachtas Committee on Media on Wednesday.
• Gardaí search Dublin park for missing Icelandic man five years after disappearance: Gardaí using cadaver dogs have carried out a search at a north Dublin park as part of their investigation into missing man Jon Jonsson who disappeared while visiting from Iceland five years ago.
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News from around the World

• Democrats pick up seat in US House after win in New York special election: Democratic former congressman Tom Suozzi won a special US House of Representatives election in New York on Tuesday, narrowing an already razor-thin Republican majority that has struggled to pass legislation.

The Big Read

• ‘The family dynamics have always been fractured and are now at an all-time low’: Tell Me About It: “My sister’s attitude from the start of her cancer diagnosis was toxic – she felt we were talking behind her back.”

The best from Opinion

• Kathy Sheridan: Trump’s flaming chainsaw circus act is back. And so is the media gravy train
• Donncha O’Connell: What a sorry and very Irish saga: A squandered opportunity to strengthen national security
• Michael McDowell: No true republican should wish for the failure of Northern Ireland

Today's Business

• Health insurance: Does private cover make sense when you’re young?: There is no one size fits all answer, according to health insurance broker Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie (which is owned by Locktons). It depends on the individual’s financial circumstances and their health but also their risk tolerance in relying on savings instead of insurance.

Top Sports news

• Gordon D’Arcy: Rare Ireland rotation leaves interesting selection discussion for Wales clash: American car titan Henry Ford once said that “even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement”. That was exactly how I felt in 2014 when we won the Six Nations Championship for only the second time in the professional era.

Martyn Turner

Culture and Life & Style Highlights

• Rosita Boland: I wondered if the cat I encountered in Florence was trying to emulate Taylor Swift’s feline

Video & Podcast Highlights

• In the News: Why activists threw soup at the Mona Lisa

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